How common is the surname Berg?

48,746 people in the United States had the surname Berg in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 6,334 Americans. It ranked 712th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Berg?

In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Berg identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Berg?

Paul Berg, American biochemist, Professor emeritus at Stanford University & Nobel laureate in Chemist, followed by Alban Berg.

Where is the surname Berg most common?

Wikidata records people named Berg in the United States, Cisleithania and Finland and 3 other countries.

Is the surname Berg getting more or less common?

More common. 48,480 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 48,746 in 2010, up 0.5%.

The surname Berg

A German surname, carried by 48,746 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex B620

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Berg is more common than 99.6% of them.

Origin

German origin

From German Berg or Swedish berg, either term meaning hill or mountain.

One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 48,746 people named Berg in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 6,334 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 48,480.

#712

rank among US surnames

48,746

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+0.5%

change since 2000 (was #637)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#703	Marks	49,177	6,278
#704	Cantu	49,126	6,285
#705	Humphrey	49,056	6,294
#706	Baxter	49,033	6,297
#707	Sawyer	49,028	6,297
#708	Clay	48,844	6,321
#709	Tanner	48,813	6,325

Who is named Berg

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

95% of people named Berg identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.4% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 95%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Two or more races 1.4%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Bergs

27 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Paul Berg
American biochemist, Professor emeritus at Stanford University & Nobel laureate in Chemist, 1926–2023
Alban Berg
Austrian composer (1885–1935)
Peter Berg
American actor, film director, producer and writer (born 1964)
Gertrude Berg
American actress, screenwriter (1899-1966)
Moe Berg
Baseball player, spy (1902–1972)
Nick Berg
American freelance radio tower repairman taken hostage and killed in Iraq, 1978–2004
Eero Berg
Athletics competitor (1898–1969)
David Berg
American leader of Children of God (1920–1994)
Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg
Baltic German aristocrat and Russian statesman (1794-1874)
Bob Berg
American jazz saxophonist (1951–2002)
Patty Berg
American golfer (1918–2006)
Alan Berg
American talk radio show host (1934–1984)

Notable Bergs come mostly from the United States (21), Cisleithania (1) and Finland (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Berg

Berg has the Soundex code B620, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code B620.

Other German surnames

All 1,101 German surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Berg come from?: From German Berg or Swedish berg, either term meaning hill or mountain.
How common is the surname Berg?: 48,746 people in the United States had the surname Berg in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 6,334 Americans. It ranked 712th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Berg?: In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Berg identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Berg?: Paul Berg, American biochemist, Professor emeritus at Stanford University & Nobel laureate in Chemist, followed by Alban Berg.
Where is the surname Berg most common?: Wikidata records people named Berg in the United States, Cisleithania and Finland and 3 other countries.
Is the surname Berg getting more or less common?: More common. 48,480 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 48,746 in 2010, up 0.5%.